Detroit Diesel Reviews

Pros

Awesome place tow ork, friendly staff, managment is very fair and courtious, flexable, grnerous health care and 401k options.

Cons

no pr Incentives!, under achivers and low peforming employees not made aware of such just too relaxed on work ethic.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring PR based raises or bonuses, Weed out the workers who do not perform so those who do feel there efforts are worth while.

Pros

Very good benefits
Wages very good for hourly, slightly above avg for salary

Cons

Very poor management once Daimler took control.

Advice to Senior Management

Daimler mngmt, don't make Detroit Diesel do everything like Daimler, it is not always the best way.

Pros

It is a company where you'll know and be known by all, including the top dog. If you perform you'll be rewarded.

Cons

If you don't perform may not be rewarded if the company as a whole is not doing well. Automotive has a 2% profit margin. In heavy duty it can be around 20%. This works in both directions.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the complaints. Don't be afraid of admitting your mistakes and correcting them. If promoting someone to a position of incompetence occurs don't be afraid to fix the situation by demoting them back to where they came from.

Pros

the work is pretty simple and the hours are predictable. there is available overtime if you like that. also, you get some benefits and 401k.

Cons

they don't pay enough and there are a lot of layoffs.

Advice to Senior Management

I am not sure what can be done to help management. since there is so much uncertainty in the automotive market as a whole, there are not many things that can be done to determine the best route to counteract the effects of the market. essentially the pursuit of efficiency would be the only route that could potentially improve the companies overall standing.

Pros

The suffering is shared. We've all taken pay cuts and had to make sacrifices.
There are some truly dedicated and talented people you can learn alot from!
You generally have a great deal of autonomy in terms of how you do your job.....
Upper management is normally fairly accessible..
There are regular performance reviews for all salaried employees.
Benefits are still fairly competative (pensions etc...)

Cons

Absolute beauracracy. Archaic rules. The union is still treated and acts like an adversary. Hourly workers have no real incentive to be productive (are highly motivated to create overtime).
The expatriates absolutely reap the rewards. The ratio of Germans to Americans in senior management positions is deplorable. This is terrible for morale. There is a feeling that you have no where to go, Most senior managers have little practical experience within the processes or with actual problems on the shop floor.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote from within. Bring in college students for long term career development. Provide incentives for the hourly workforce to attain production targets. Give everyone a career path...

Pros

Given the chance to take on as much responsibility as one can handle and learn many different aspects of engineering in a short period of time. Great place for an engineer to start out since one can gain a lot of experience in a very short time. Definitely a plus.

Cons

Lack of focus from management and an inability to see and communicate short, middle and long term goals. Very difficult for management to assess accurate performance of engineers if there are no steady metrics of success defined beforehand. Not recommended as a company for the long term. Very hard to know what is expected from an individual for advancement.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay on target. Plans change so often that it is difficult to even call it a plan. Look at what other companies are doing in terms of process implementation and make a serious effort to implement. Set clear metrics for success for engineers.

Pros

New product line with complex German engineering. Very little real competition aside from Cummins. Strong dealer/distribution network. Decent brand value. A few intelligent, good people still work there.

Cons

Company doesn't stand behind their product. Nepotistic , highly political "Good 'Ol Boy, Old School" corporate culture, shady and morally questionable business practices. Uneducated, incompetent managers and employees. Blue collar culture, education and intelligence frowned upon. Strict German management and control. Corporate offices are separated into "hourly" and "salaried" divisions, it's 2009. Executive positions mostly "reserved" for German blood. Amibiguous performance metrics and unfair employee evaluations. Lack of authority for employees to make decisions, which are ultimately made at slower than a snails pace. Not much has changed in the last 30 years. Unprofessional environment, industry and customers. Too much testosterone, not enough brain cells. Get "R" Done culture. Glass ceiling for women and minorities. Lack of respect for the environment. Poor product quality, especially compared to Cummins. Bueracracy is prevalent, since DDC competes in an Oligopoly marketplace. Union manufacturing worforce. Very low employee morale, many are depressed. The German execs have dug a deep hole for this company.

Advice to Senior Management

Adopt more professional standards and hold managers to them. Move all manufacturing to Mexico or Brazil and bust the union. Bring back 401k matches, bonuses and restore salaries to pre-"cut" levels. Don't just pretend to appreciate valued employees, sincerely appreciate them and show it, people can tell the difference and they ARE your most valuable asset. Operate lean and mean. Fire incompetent, uneducated Regional Sales Managers, especially out west and clean house in the marketing dept. Implement more "individual performance based" compensation standards and do a better job of more fairly evaluating an individual's performance. The current variable pay system is a joke.

Pros

Clean and temprature controlled industruial envirorment

There is a New investment in the HDEP product and capital equipment

Never had a problem spending excessive amounts of money

Impressive high end engines being produced there

Buisness is mostly assemlby, which is better than machining etc etc.

Cons

I'm sorry to say that the downsides to working at Detroit Diesel are plentiful.

Nepotism is common.

There is little room for position improvement or for high achievers because the higher level positions are taken by Germans.

It is common to find Union employees sleeping while on the job and smoking even though it was banned by Wayne county. There are a good deal of problems generated by union employees to create down time. Sometimes security and management cannot handel union employee disputes and the police are called in to the plant. Sometimes union employees scream and bang tooling on equipment to make noise. It is common to see union employees talk on their phones, read the news paper, listen to headphones while working.

The top level German management team is poor.

Last but certainly not the least the morale at Detroit Diesel is poor.

Advice to Senior Management

There is no way to fix Detroit Diesel, move your motor manufacturing buisness to a lower cost country.

Good job on implmenting global daimler standardization mechanisims for purchasing, benifits, position level and reviews.